Senator MARK BISHOP (3:04 PM) —I move:

What a disastrous entree we have seen by Minister Coonan to the communications portfolio. We have seen two major changes in policy direction announced followed by two spectacular backflips. The minister has been overridden by the Prime Minister on each and every occasion. So much for new blood and the first flush of enthusiasm.

On her first day, the minister announced that she would refine the Telstra sale legislation to get it through the parliament. The minister said she would look at the way the legislation was framed to win support from the Senate. The minister had new ideas—a new broom. Not so, said the Prime Minister. He said the government would not change its plans for selling Telstra. He said, `The basic policy will remain the same.' So, one week after her new Telstra policy, the minister was forced into retreat. In the Financial Review on Monday last week the minister said, `The chances of revisiting the Telstra sale legislation were remote.' They were entrenched views, she said.

The minister's initial optimism had turned to deep pessimism in no less than seven days. The minister had been squashed on this issue by the Prime Minister. He wanted to kill off the Telstra sale debate prior to the election. But the minister could not help herself. Just yesterday in the Age,the minister announced that she was favourably disposed to the structural separation of Telstra. She said:

How original. But, at the same time as she was making this comment to the press, it was a complete and utter reversal of government policy on Telstra. Some time ago when Labor carefully considered the structural separation issue, the government of the day, through the then minister, Richard Alston, said it was a lunatic proposal that would cripple the industry. Labor was condemned repeatedly for even considering the issue. Now it is Minister Coonan's own home-grown idea. Telstra shareholders were stunned at the minister's new brainwave. But, again, the minister backflipped. The minister turned around on the very same day that she made that announcement and recanted. Again the Howard policy line on this issue prevailed. The minister was forced to publicly restate that the government does not support structural separation in any shape or form, and again today the minister confirmed that. Two flip-flops in two weeks. `What next?' one might legitimately ask.

The minister has now said that there is no reason for a fourth television network in Australia. Yet the minister's own portfolio is currently reviewing this very issue. So that is a waste of time. The minister has made the government's decision in advance and thoughtfully announced it to us so that we all know. Bad luck if the review says that it is a good idea. But, wait, there is more: the minister has happily ruled out separating Telstra from Foxtel. Yet the ACCC, the government's own watchdog, says that Telstra's involvement in Foxtel stifles competition. Just two weeks into the job and the minister has made four blunders. It looks as though the elevation to playing in the first grade has been a bit rough, a bit tough. But it has been an absolute disaster for the portfolio and for those who have interests in this area. It shows how the slightest imagination or initiative in this area is squashed by the dead hand of conservative ideology.

The exercise of control from the top, from the office of the Prime Minister, in all of these matters is absolutely and totally ruthless. The minister has been caned and there is now a huge question mark over the management of this complex and hugely important portfolio. We wonder what might be next. The minister has been in the portfolio for no less than three or four weeks and every week there is an announcement, every week there is a change in policy and every week the Prime Minister is forced to intervene, correct the minister and restate the policy that has been the subject of public knowledge for years and years, as far as the government is concerned, and pull the minister into line. (Time expired)